Watt gives his critics some advice to follow
The power of Texans star defensive end J.J. Watt extends far beyond the football field, where he makes his living pummeling quarterbacks.
The chiseled, 6-5, 290-pound three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year also flexes plenty of muscle on social media, an unvarnished domain where Watt regularly updates 1.85 million followers via his official Twitter account. Watt is an active user of Instagram and Snapchat.
Sincerity doubted
As popular as Watt is, as much positive feedback as the Pro Bowl pass rusher garners for posting videos and photos of his visits to hospitals to visit sick children, his late-night workouts, his commentary on the Grammy awards or his social life, including a much-discussed apparent date recently with actress Kate Hudson, Watt also takes heat from critics who doubt his sincerity.
Watt is frequently derided for alleged attentionseeking behavior, including this week when Watt posted a Snapchat photo displaying him at work at the Texans’ training facility even though workouts had been canceled because of major flooding in the Houston area.
Watt emphasized that he’s a genuine person who won’t be deterred by criticism. He has no plans to change his open, sharing approach to social media, where he recently pointed out that he was single after being linked recently to Hudson and UFC fighter Paige VanZant.
“We have social media and people want to see access, they want to know what you’re doing, they want day-to-day, what’s going on in his life?” Watt said Wednesday at the Texans’ training facility. “Then every single thing you do becomes a story, whether it’s a tweet, whether it’s an Instagram post, whether it’s a Snapchat, every single thing becomes a story, so I think if people don’t want to see what I’m doing, they should probably stop following me. That’s basically what it comes down to.”
“One of the problems with all the social media we have nowadays is it becomes a cynical world. I think there’s a lot of people out there that want to believe that somebody’s being fake, they want to believe that somebody is doing things just for attention, when in reality there’s a whole lot of people out there doing good things for the world. If we could just believe in the good and we can actually spend our energy on being good people and doing good things as opposed to trying to rip other people down or trying to poke flaws in other people, I think then we can truly help make changes in the world.”
Not changing
Watt has bristled occasionally at the amount of scrutiny he faces being in the public eye and how every utterance he delivers tends to create headlines, even mundane remarks.
Ultimately, though, Watt doesn’t want to change.
“Why would I worry about what somebody says when all they do is go on the Internet and try to rip other people down?” Watt said. “That’s not the type of person I want to associate myself with. I’m going to go out there, I’m going to keep trying to inspire people. I’m going to keep trying to motivate people. I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing. I haven’t changed anything I’ve been doing for my whole career. I’ve been doing all right with that so far, so I’m going to try to have more success.”
Watt’s serious approach to his news conference turned humorous when he was asked if he was working out with Hudson, smiling and answering, “No” twice.
Meanwhile, Watt is nearing the end of his grueling rehabilitation from painful groin and abdominal injuries that required an extensive surgery in January.
Feeling good
Watt has made major progress as he participates in the Texans’ offseason conditioning program that launched this week.
“I feel really good,” Watt said. “It’s coming along really well, very close to getting back to 100 percent. I think our trainers have done a great job. I think everybody that helped me back in Wisconsin has done a great job. I think the doctor that did the surgery did a great job. Now it’s just a matter of building back to being better than where I was before, which is my goal.”
Watt offered no specific timetable on when he’ll be fully recovered and cleared for full participation in upcoming organized team activities and minicamps.
“I really don’t know,” he said. “I feel really good;, I think I’m farther along than maybe I thought I’d be. It’s just day-to-day and no worries whatsoever moving forward.”